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Magnum front end problems

My Magnum is sitting at the dealer while they are trying to find out why a front end alignment at 22,000 miles won't correct a problem. It pulls hard to the right. Normal other things have been checked, tires, brakes, etc.

What got me was the service manager who denied a problem at first, then after driving it himself told me, Magnum front ends pulling to the right have been giving them "headaches". Anyone else had this problem. Sounds like recall #3 coming.

Love the car otherwise, even if it isn't a hemi and is grossly underpowered with a 2.7. (company car)

Reply to
Jim C
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Curious: what are recalls 1 and 2??? Mine is a Hemi - and it doesn't pull to the right.

Reply to
Jack Carter

Many Magnums pull right as built at the factory. My dealer did a front end alignment and ordered a new bolt that is designed to aid in the setting of one of the alignment parameters. The bolt arrived in about a week, and the dealer had to take part of the front end apart to install the bolt, so he had to do a second alignment. He also "adjusted the cradle," whatever that is. The first alignment helped a lot, but after putting in the new adjustment bolt, and doing a second alignment, the car tracks straight as an arrow on level ground. Any dealer should know about this fix. I can give you the part number of the bolt if you need it. I think I still have the receipt from the service order. The service writer at your dealer is an idiot.

Dan

Reply to
Dan

Dan and Jack,

I am just back from the dealer and picking it up and Dan, your 100% right except they want to put in two bolts ($125 for parts) saying the originals can't adjust far enough. They fiddled with the cradle too and the mechanic wasn't a happy camper. My fleet service company doesn't want to split with the $$ for the change, so I'm stuck for another 60k miles. The service manager told me everything you say, but only after I insisted that I hadn't let the air pressure in the right front tire go down. I had actually had the tires rotated and when I told them that he changed his tune and told me about the problems they having with Magnums pulling to the right. When I drove it home tonight, it now "drifts" instead of a steady, fairly hard pull. If it doesn't get worse, I can live with it. I'll be putting 2,000 miles on it in the next 7 days working.

Jack, engine size doesn't matter, it's the front end and seems to be universal. My problem showed up around 20k miles. I've had it since 6/04 in a pre-release program.

Thanks for the info,

Jim

Reply to
Jim C

I don't know if it's the same process on the Magnum, but on the LH cars, one of the procedures for correcting a pull to one side was to loosen the cradle bolts and shift the entire cradle. This moved the lower suspension points, while the upper end of the struts remained fixed on the body, so it was possible to adjust cross-caster this way. Camber adjustment could be obtained by using smaller strut-to-knuckle bolts that were rated for the same torque as the standard ones; the smaller bolts allowed shifting the strut/knuckle attachment. There was also a service bulletin that called for elongating the holes in the lower strut bracket where it attached to the knuckle, allowing camber adjustment.

Supposedly the only front end alignment on the LH was toe, but as you can see, that was not exactly true.

-GP

Reply to
Gene Poon

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